NEW technology to improve how graffiti, fly-tipping and litter is tackled by Harrow Council is an excuse to shed staff, union officials claim.

The Labour-run council approved an overhaul of software used in public realm maintenance services to save £6.9million a year during the next decade, with the help of consultants Capita.

The council says the use of Global Positioning Systems using satellite technology will bolster route planning and complaint mapping, and provide near-real-time information to Access Harrow customer services.

But the proposal, costing £2m to implement, will lead to 34 redundancies in the council's environmental services and the loss of eight vehicles.

Steve Compton, assistant branch secretary of public sector works union Unison, said: "They will cut staff. We believe the only way they can achieve the £1m is by reductions in salaries - nothing to do with technology. We know the directorate has to save £1m so if this actually is a redundancy exercise, just call it that, and let's restructure the workforce and review the service standards."

Mr Compton said some street cleaning teams were so knowledgeable, route planning would not benefit them and that while hand-held computers may help relay data on the progress of call-outs to Access Harrow, it could not speed up how quickly the teams worked.

Councillor Phillip O'Dell (Labour), portfolio holder for environment and community safety, said: "Previous measures have been shown in some areas to be wasting money, taking too long and frustrating the public, which is why we need to do things differently.

"With big cuts in government funding over the next four years, it will not be easy to find extra money to keep the borough clean, but this project will allow us to do more for less."